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No Disrespect to Steve Coppell, but it would be fantastic to see Bolton turn over Reading at the Reebok.

Not because I have anything against Reading but Sammy Lee desperately needs a result to turn around his fortunes as Bolton manager.

My old Liverpool team-mate Sammy is one of the nicest guys in football and deserves a break. There is a saying in football that nice guys don't succeed. Well, if that were true then how come Arsene Wenger has won so much.

By the way, I love the saying "no disrespect", as it is supposed to give you licence to say anything you want about someone without them taking offence.

Sadly, Sammy has taken a battering since stepping into the very difficult job of having to take over from Big Sam at Bolton, because Allardyce worked miracles before him.

What makes it even harder sometimes is for a No.2 to step up to the plate. So often they have been the nice guy in the good cop, bad cop routine and all of a sudden you have a different role to play.

Perhaps Sammy needs a new No.2, a real sergeant-major type like Wenger has in Pat Rice at Arsenal because they play off each other brilliantly.

But what has been even more ambitious for Sammy is him trying to take on the manager's job and change the way Bolton play at the same time.

Big Sam had a way of playing. It wasn't just long ball, but it was direct, it was physical, they'd get in your face, get tough at setpieces and teams used to dread going to the Reebok.

Sadly, that fear factor has gone because Sammy Lee is trying to play a different way, playing more football and getting back to what he was used to as a player and a coach.

But to convince the players it is the right way to go you need results - and quickly. That has not happened and suddenly Lee looks in big trouble.

They also miss Kevin Davies big time as him not playing is a major blow. But the biggest thing for me is the different style and it begs the question, have Bolton the players to do it? On the first three results the answer would be no.

And it does also suggest that Bolton do not have enough strong characters in the dressing room either. You really wouldn't want to be in the trenches with Nicolas Anelka and El Hadji Diouf.

Suddenly, they are both agitating for moves and if you take their talent out of the team then suddenly Bolton are a team which is going to struggle.

You also have Kevin Nolan complaining after the game at Portsmouth that he did not know where he was playing and there are major headaches.

Lee desperately needs to get the belief back in the team and therefore you need to go back to basics.

Try to get Anelka and Diouf back on side to get them playing to their potential and creating problems for opposition defences.

But most of all, get back to being nasty, snarling and horrible to play against. Then, slowly but surely, you can introduce your own methods, your own players and do things gradually.

But in the short term Bolton need results to save Sammy Lee. It's nonsense to say that nice guys don't succeed. But he will have to ensure Wanderers are nasty to make sure he keeps his job.